Tight Hips - Real Client Solution

Do you remember one of the things many teachers would say at the beginning of the year? You know when everyone is new to a class and nobody feels comfortable to ask a question? And even when the teacher would put a question to the students everyone would stay quiet.

And so at a certain point the teacher would say questions are great because usually there is someone else thinking the same thing.

This is the inspiration for this post. Hopefully the content helps a number of you as well with your training. Let's get at it.

The other day Joanne K. was doing front squats and mentioned that often feels restricted in the hips. I say hips plural because she mentioned that the restriction alternates between right and left depending on the day.

[caption id="attachment_3037" align="alignleft" width="200"] Psoas, one of the hip flexors

So here's what we did.First of all I took a look at Joanne's squat pattern. This involves looking all sides and examining for alignment, depth and symmetry. What stood out was there was a slight collapse of the left knee.

Now we had something to address.

First we had her foam roll the left adductor followed by an exercise to activate the left external hip rotator. For this we used a banded clam shell exercise. This took all of about 5 minutes, or less, to do.

When Joanne retested her squat she said it was substantially better without a pinching at the hip.

But what about the fact the issue seemed to alternate from right to left depending on the day?

Well first we'll assume the warm-up and training is performed in a balance matter. Then the other thing to examine is activities of daily living which may contribute to this imbalance.

In this situation we discovered that sleeping on the right side with the left leg draped over the top leads to tight internal hip rotators. And when one night can involve sleeping on the left and the next the right we can see how the issue can alternate sides.

So besides some extra foam rolling and corrective exercise for the glutes what else can be done?

[caption id="attachment_3038" align="alignleft" width="300"] The top legs of the 2 outside girls will be flexed and internally rotated at the hip.

First of all make sure to alternate the sleeping position. And when sleeping on the side make sure to place a pillow between the knees. This helps to lessen pressure on the on the low as a more neutral spine position is achieved. Secondly the pillow serves to block how far the top knee can overlap thus minimizing the amount of internal rotation that results.

Next time you are training with us and something doesn't feel quite right make sure to ask one of our coaches. We will not only help to identify what the problem is but also give you some solutions on the spot to correct the issue.

Chris